Wildlife trade investigations benefit from multivariate stable isotope analyses.

The investigation of wildlife trade and crime has benefitted from advances in technology and scientific development in a variety of fields. Stable isotope analysis (SIA) represents one rapidly developing approach that has considerable potential to contribute to wildlife trade investigation, especially in complementing other methods including morphological, genetic, and elemental approaches. Here, we review recent progress in the application of SIA in wildlife trade research to highlight strengths, shortcomings, and areas for development in the future.

Museomics Sheds Light on Evolutionary Diversity in a Critically Endangered Cockatoo Species From Wallacea.

Accurate identification of evolutionarily significant units of rare and threatened organisms provides a foundation for effective management and conservation. Up to seven subspecies of the critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) have been described, four of which were commonly recognised pre-2014. In the absence of genotypic data, C.

Serological evidence of sarbecovirus exposure along Sunda pangolin trafficking pathways.

Background: Early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) involved in the illegal wildlife trade in mainland China were identified as hosts of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs). Although it is unconfirmed whether pangolins or other traded wildlife served as intermediate hosts for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the trafficking of pangolins presents a clear risk for transmission of viruses with zoonotic and epizootic potential regardless. We have investigated the origins of pangolin carcasses seized in Hong Kong and have evaluated their potential exposure to SARSr-CoVs, other coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses, aiming to address a gap in our knowledge with regard to the role of wildlife trade in the maintenance and emergence of pathogens with zoonotic and epizootic potential.

Genomic and Acoustic Biogeography of the Iconic Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Clarifies Species Limits and Patterns of Intraspecific Diversity.

Many highly recognizable species lack genetic data important for conservation due to neglect over their hyperabundance. This likely applies to the Sulfur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), one of the world's most iconic parrots. The species is native to Australia, New Guinea, and some surrounding Melanesian islands of the latter.

Assessing the legal, illegal, and gray ornamental trade of the critically endangered helmeted hornbill.

Monitoring wildlife trade dynamics is an important initial step for conservation action and demand reduction campaigns to reduce illegal wildlife trade. Studies often rely on one data source to assess a species' trade, such as seizures or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) trade data. Each database provides useful information but is often incomplete.

Discussion of wildlife trade before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in professional opinion pieces and scientific articles.

Wildlife trade is a multi-billion-dollar sector that impacts a wide range of species, and thus is of significant research and conservation interest. Wildlife trade has also become a prominent topic in the public-facing media, where coverage has intensified following the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic due to the potential connection between wildlife trade and the origin of the SARS Cov2 virus. Given the importance of the media in shaping public understanding and discourse of complex topics such as wildlife trade, this could impact the implementation of and public support for policy decisions.

Low pangolin consumption in Hong Kong pre- and post- the COVID-19 outbreak: Conservation and health concerns both contribute to people's attitudes.

Pangolins have recently received significant media attention globally as the trade for their scales and meat is driving many species closer to extinction. As a result of this, there have been increased legal regulations placed on pangolin trade in recent years. The suggestion that pangolins may have been involved in the transmission of COVID-19 further brought the issues of pangolin consumption to the fore in 2020.

The relationships between coping styles and food intake in shiftworking nurses and midwives: a pilot study.

Shiftworkers are more likely to suffer from gastrointestinal disease and Type 2 Diabetes than the general population, likely due to their altered dietary intakes. Previous research has suggested that coping strategies and health behaviours may be linked, however, questions remain regarding these relationships in shiftworking populations. The Standard Shiftwork Index and Food Frequency Questionnaire were completed by nurses/midwives working forward rotating shifts (N=27, female=24, age=38.

Multiple constraints on urban bird communication: both abiotic and biotic noise shape songs in cities.

Ambient noise can cause birds to adjust their songs to avoid masking. Most studies investigate responses to a single noise source (e.g.

International socioeconomic inequality drives trade patterns in the global wildlife market.

The wildlife trade is a major cause of species loss and a pathway for disease transmission. Socioeconomic drivers of the wildlife trade are influential at the local scale yet rarely accounted for in multinational agreements aimed at curtailing international trade in threatened species. In recent decades (1998-2018), approximately 421,000,000 threatened (i.

Mercury exposure in sedentary and migratory Charadrius plovers distributed widely across China.

Mercury pollution is a global problem and of particular concern in high emissions areas, such as China. We studied the migratory Kentish Plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, which breeds in coastal northern/central China and the inland Qinghai Lake, and the White-faced Plover C. dealbatus, a year-round resident of coastal southern China.

Evidence for non-selective ingestion of microplastic in demersal fish.

Microplastics have been observed in >100 species of fish, with considerable variability in levels of contamination in different species and different geographic locations. Here, we investigated the incidence of microplastic in five species of demersal fish (four wild-caught species and one from a mariculture business) in Hong Kong. We observed that 54% of fish stomachs contained microplastic (hard fragments and fibres) with no significant difference in the abundance of microplastic ingested between the species, between wild and commercial fish farms, or between locations.

Genetic, phenotypic and ecological differentiation suggests incipient speciation in two Charadrius plovers along the Chinese coast.

Background: Speciation with gene flow is an alternative to the nascence of new taxa in strict allopatric separation. Indeed, many taxa have parapatric distributions at present. It is often unclear if these are secondary contacts, e.

Integrating Proximal and Horizon Threats to Biodiversity for Conservation.

Global conservation promotes solutions to different dimensions of threat and response: land-use change, climate change, pollution, and so forth. Countering each threat has its band of proponents who advocate for their cause as paramount, increasingly, given limited resources, by downplaying the relative importance of others. Not only does this encourage a compartmentalised view of the world, which is ecologically unsound, it allows politicians and others to cherry-pick responses in light of political expediency or local demands.

Whale Shark Tourism: Impacts on Coral Reefs in the Philippines.

Reef-based tourism has been developing rapidly in recent decades yet its impacts on reef ecosystems are often overlooked. In Tan-awan, Oslob, Philippines, whale sharks are attracted to the shallow reefs where they are provisioned up to 50 tons y of feed and this phenomenon in turn attracts >300,000 y visitors. Given the intensive provisioning and concentrating tourism activities, we hypothesized that the whale shark tourism-impacted site (IS) will have greater impacts on reef degradation and higher anthropogenic nitrogen pollution level compared to its reference site (RS).

The Environmental Exposures and Inner- and Intercity Traffic Flows of the Metro System May Contribute to the Skin Microbiome and Resistome.

The skin functions as the primary interface between the human body and the external environment. To understand how the microbiome varies within urban mass transit and influences the skin microbiota, we profiled the human palm microbiome after contact with handrails within the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system. Intraday sampling time was identified as the primary determinant of the variation and recurrence of the community composition, whereas human-associated species and clinically important antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were captured as p.

Coping with shift work-related circadian disruption: A mixed-methods case study on napping and caffeine use in Australian nurses and midwives.

Introduction: Two of the most ubiquitous fatigue countermeasures used by shift-working nurses are napping and caffeine. This mixed-methods case study investigated the ways nurses and midwives utilised napping and caffeine countermeasures to cope with shift work, and associated sleep, physical health and psychological health outcomes.

Materials And Methods: N = 130 Australian shift-working nurses and midwives (mean age = 44 years, range = 21-67, 115F, 15M) completed the Standard Shiftwork Index.

Low frequency dove coos vary across noise gradients in an urbanized environment.

Urbanization poses a challenge to bird communication due to signal masking by ambient noise and reflective surfaces that lead to signal degradation. Bird species (especially oscines) have been shown to alter their singing behaviour to increase signal efficiency in highly urbanized environments. However, few studies on the effects of noise on song structure have included birds with low frequency vocal signals which may be especially vulnerable to noise pollution due to significant frequency overlap of their signals with traffic noise.

Stable isotopes as indicators of altitudinal distributions and movements in an Ecuadorean hummingbird community.

Altitudinal migration and dispersal is an important component of the life history of several temperate and tropical birds but remains poorly understood due to the limited success of mark and recapture techniques. Stable isotopes of hydrogen (deltaD) in rainfall, and to a lesser extent, carbon (delta13C) in plants are known to change with altitude and hence may provide the basis of a technique for tracking the altitudinal movements in birds and other wildlife. We investigated the potential for this technique by measuring delta13C, deltaD, and delta15N values in tail feathers of eight species of hummingbirds ( Phaethornis malaris, P.